Ammunition roller



Nov. 13; 1945. c. A. HATHAWAY 2,388,967

AMMUNIT ION ROLLER Filed April 1'7, 1945 I /v l EN TOR CHESTER A. HA THAWAV By W AGENT Patented Nov. 13, 1945 AMMUNITION ROLLER Chester A. Hathaway, Burbank, Califl, assignor,

by mesne assignments, to Lockheed Aircraft Corporation, a corporation of California I I Application April 17, 1943, Serial No. 483,464

6 Claims.

This invention relates to an improved ammunition roller for use in guiding and feeding linked ammunition to machine guns, automatic cannons, and the like, wherein a quantity of linked cartridges are automatically fed from a box to the breech of a machine gun or cannon,

Such linked cartridges may be of the continuous web or disintegrating link type and are customarily fed by automatic action of the gun or cannon, a .50 calibre machine gun, for example, being rated as capable of lifting 17 pounds of cartridges to its breech. However, in multiple gun installations, and especially with flexible gun mounts or turret installations, the linked cartridges must be fed some distance, usually involving a number of bends or turns, and it is therefore desirable to feed the linked cartridges over rollers in preference to chutes, at least when abrupt turns from the plane of the belt or web is necessary. Accordingly, a multiple gun airship will require a number of rollers, each of which must? withstand the discontinuous or intermittent movements of the linked cartridges. Accordingly, each roller must be as light as possible to minimize its inertia yet must withstand the battering of the relatively heavy loads and above all avoid damage or denting of the cartridge links due to the acceleration impacts or jerks incident to the nature of the gun firing cycle.

It is accordingly an object of this invention to provide an improved ammunition roller having a cushioned tread or contact with the cartridges being fed thereover, thus permitting the use of lighter rollers with less inertia opposing the necessary repeated accelerations of the linked cartridges, and eliminating damage to the cartridges that would be apt to contribute to malfunctioning of the gun at a critical time.

Other and further important objects of this invention will be apparent from the disclosures in the specification and the accompanying drawing.

This invention in its preferred form is illustrated in the drawing and hereinafter more fully described.

On the drawing- Figure I is a side elevation, partly in section, of a molded plastic two part roller embodying the features of this invention, a representative cartridge being shown in dotted lines in connection therewith.

Figure II is a section on the line 11-11 of Figure I to show the coring possibilities resulting from the two part construction of the roller.

Figure III is a section on the line HIIII of Figure I to show the axle bearing construction. Figure IV is a fragmentary section through the wheel and tire showing a modified arrangement thereof.

As shown- The ammunition roller of this invention, as shown, is intended to handle existing ammunition represented as a machine gun cartridge or shell shown in dotted lines in Figure I. Such a cartridge has a tapered case I0 which is largest at its base or rim H and sharply necked down at its outer end 12 to engage a bullet l3. Because of the different diameters of the base and neck portion the ammunition roller has supporting wheels or discs l4 and I5 having a diametrical differential arranged to support the cartridge axis parallel to the roller axis.

Normally, the belts of linked cartridges are freely bendable lengthwise thereof and have a more limited capacity for lateral or sidewise deflection and twisting, in effect being analogous to a loosely journaled roller'chain where the cartridges form the rollers. Thus a cushioned tooth sprocket can be used to apply a booster feed to a long ammunition belt, but cylindrical intermediate supporting or guiding ammunition rollers form the preferred form of the invention as described herein.

The wheels or rollers 14 and IE, on which the cartridges are supported, are provided with peripheral rims 16 having grooves to receive resilient and deformable tires I! which may conveniently be cut from extruded or seamless natural or synthetic rubber or other tough resilient cushion material such as suitable grades of rubber-like plastics The tires ll resemble heavy rubber bands, and are conveniently retained in the rim grooves by their inherent resiliency, being slightly stretched when applying the same. Alternatively, the tires may be formed as individual rubber rings of circular section.

As an alternative, shown in Figure IV, the wheel rim l6 may be reduced or eliminated, a channel section tire l8 being stretched over a disc like wheel flange l9. This would require individually molded tires, whereas the preferred form could be cut from tubing.

The wheels I4 and 15 are mounted or formed integral with a hub or axle 20. While the combination of hub and wheels could be molded or turned from a variety of materials, I prefer to mold each wheel integral with the hub which latter can be in one or two pieces, the two piece hub being thereafter cemented together, as by can conveniently be formed as a counterbore in. j,

one part with a reduced male sleeve inserted therein, which align the wheels and axle rod bearings 2|, and can readily be cemented together to assemble the complete roller;

N11,, 15 The use of cushioned, replaceable tires on-the rollers adds to the efiiciency thereof, reducing the pull or friction on the linked cartridges, and transferring the radial load thereof to the bearings of the roller by reducing slippage at the rim.

7 It will'thus be seen that I have invented an improved ammunition roller for feeding linked"- ammunition or cartridges to machine guns or the like wherein the cartridges are cushioned on re- I siliently tired wheels to absorb .the shocksi of impact and rapid accelerations incident to the intermittent motion of such linked ammunition.

Having thus described my invention and the present preferred embodiments thereof; I desire to emphasize the fact that many modifications may be resorted to in a manner limited only'by a just interpretation of the following claims.

I claim as my invention: r

1. An'ammunition roller for guiding and feed-' ing linked-cartridges to machine gunsor the like, comprising a two part molded plastic hub having axle bearings molded therein, spaced wheels 'molded integral with said hub part and of different diameters compensating for the difierential between the cartridge neck and base diameters, said wheels-having peripheral channels in the surface thereof, and resilient shock absorbing tread rims inserted in said channels and projecting above the surface of said wheels to provide the sole contacting surfaces engaging said cartridges. 5

' 2. An ammunition roller for guiding and feeding linked cartridges to machine guns or the like, comprising a two part molded plastic hub having axle bearings molded therein, the two parts of the hub being cemented together after molding 50 whereby to facilitate coring the interior thereof, spaced wheels molded integral with said hub parts differential between the cartridge neck and base diameters, said wheels having peripheral channels in the surface thereof, and resilient shock absorbing tread rims inserted in said channels and projecting above the surface of said wheels to provide the sole contacting surfaces engaging said cartridges.

3. A roller for guiding and feedinglinked cartridges comprising two-molded plastic hub sections, the inner ends of the sections having telescoping parts cemented together, internal bearings in the outer ends of the sections, a radially and of diiferentdiameters compensating for the projecting wheel intermediate the ends of each section having a groove in its periphery, the bearings and wheels being molded integral with their respective sections, and resilient shock absorbing tires sprun into said grooves of the wheels.

4. A roller for guiding and feeding linked cartridges comprising two elongate tubular molded plastic hub sections, the inner ends of the sections being rigidly secured together, internal axle hearings in the outer end portions of the section, -said bearings being cored'out, a radially projecting wheel intermediate'the ends of each section, the bearings and wheels being molded in tegral with their respective sections, and resilient shock absorbing tires onthe peripheries of the wheel's. V

- 5. A'light weight ammunition roller for guiding and feeding linked cartridges comprising an elo'n-- gate hub having a plastic wall, axle bearing means on thewall at each end of said hub, and longitudinally spaced plastic wheels on the hub, at least a portion of each wheel beingof yielding resilient preformed materialreplaceably mounted on saidwheel and retained thereon by its inherent resiliency to provide the sole contacting surface for engaging said cartridges. s I I 6. A light weight ammunition roller for guid ing and feeding linked cartridges to machine guns or the like, comprising an elongate, hub having a plastic wall, axle bearing means formed on said wall at each end of said hub, spaced wheelsof different diameters to compensate for the differential between the cartridge neck and base diameters, said wheels having reinforcing spokes in association with a plastic disc molded integral with said hub part, and resilient preformed shock absorbing tires replaceably mounted on said wheels and retained thereon by their inherent resiliency to provide the sole contacting surfaces for engaging said cartridges.

' CHESTER A. HATHAWAY. 

